Most streamlined gear folder

[onecircles]

I've returned to the question: what is the minimal amount of default equipment which is necessary to run buzz? But after some experimentation the question has become strange because it seems buzz will include certain machines regardless of whether they are present in gear. Jeskola filter 3 for instance. There actually is no machine for this filter in the gear folder, but it will load, even if it's set not to load at startup in gear.xml.

Anyways buzzers, if you're interested, here is the minimal gear folder if you keep the machines that it will load regardless of their presence in gear (which seems wise).

Generators

Jeskola arpeggiator.gui
Jeskola live.net
Jeskola loop recorder
Jeskola note matrix
Jeskola pattern xp
Jeskola pianoroll
Jeskola qsamo
Jeskola relativion
Jeskola sine synth

Effects

Jeskola gain.net



Tell me if I'm wrong buzz wizards, but you should be able to remove the following if you want to go to extremes to streamline your install.

Jeskola bass
Jeskola bass 2
Jeskola bass 3
Jeskola noise generator
Jeskola organ
Jeskola tracker
Jeskola trilok
Jeskola xs-1

Jeskola chorus
Jeskola cross delay
Jeskola delay
Jeskola distortion
Jeskola eq3
Jeskola filter
Jeskola filter 2
Jeskola flanger
Jeskola ninja delay
Jeskola raverb
Jeskola reverb
Jeskola stereo reverb
Jeskola wave shaper

[UNZ]

Some machines are built into the buzz executable, you can't remove them. Note how they all start with "Jeskola".
They are "loaded" until you use an instance of them in your song tough, so no big deal.

[onecircles]

Only some of the machines which begin with Jeskola are built in, some others are bundled. The choice of which ones are bundled seems fairly arbitrary. Filter 1 and 2 are bundled, and filter 3 is hard coded for instance.

It's NBD to be sure, but

It's considered best practice to keep your machines at a minimum to avoid crashes and noise bursts etc, so this question is just an extension of that practice. I know all the Jeskola machines are probably rock solid, but I also don't currently use any of the bundled jeskola stuff except qsamo, so there's also a benefit if you want to simplify your machines view to put your most used equipment at arms reach.

[UNZ]

yes you can delete some of those jeskola machines which come as a separate .dll, but they will be right back the next time you update buzz, so its just a waste of time really.

yes its a good idea to keep your gear folder tidy, but at the same time its not like machines that are just in there which you never even load into a bmx will cause problems.

[AndersBrontosaurus]

How about streamlining the index.txt instead?

That would give you instant access to rocksolid favourite machines and the ones you don't need you don't even have to see.

[onecircles]

Unz, your statement is incorrect. Many of them don't come back the next time you load. The ones I've listed can be removed and they won't load anymore. Also you're probably right that these machines machines specifically won't cause any problems, but it's not true that machines don't do anything unless you load them into a song. That's what the buzzwiki machines blacklist is for, and that's why buzz wizards recommend that you keep certain machines out of your gear folder entirely. I know that removing the jeskola machines is unnecessary, but I keep 2 installations of buzz, one install is for freedom and experimentation, and it has everything I could ever dream of using. The other install is as streamlined as possible, and only contains machines that I use all the time and which are safe and stable. This is how folks recommend that you set up your install for live performance, as some machines are known to cause instability and noise bursts. I just think that if I'm going to streamline my gear folder, I might as well go all the way. To each their own!

I didn't know about index.txt, Anders. I'll look into that, thanks!

[UNZ]

Unz, your statement is incorrect. Many of them don't come back the next time you load. The ones I've listed can be removed and they won't load anymore. Also you're probably right that these machines machines specifically won't cause any problems, but it's not true that machines don't do anything unless you load them into a song. That's what the buzzwiki machines blacklist is for, and that's why buzz wizards recommend that you keep certain machines out of your gear folder entirely.

sorry but i am 100% correct on everything i wrote, watch your mouth young one...
i wrote that entry about machine blacklists, along with many other entries on the buzz wiki, so don't tell me how i'm wrong. those machines are very rare exceptions and it certainly does not apply to the bundled jeskola machines. also, i highly doubt new buzz even has this problem anymore, this is an ancient tale of old buzz.
i'm using buzz since 1997, so i dont know who else you'd call a "buzz wizard". you might also want to look at some of my own machines, just so you don't think i'm talking out of my ass here.

[Joachip]

Easy does it, people. The mission about finding a minimal buzz is a good mission, but I wouldn't care much about whether the Jeskola machines are there or not. If they show up during the next install, just leave them. They are harmless.

Btw.: Polac's VST loader is also rock solid, and can be included without risk.

[UNZ]

and dont take my word for it:

<@oskari_> buzz doesn't load any machine dlls before they are used
<@oskari_> unless you put LoadAtStartup in gear.xml

myth busted

EDIT: i also asked oskari if buzz did, in the past, load the .dll files at startup. it looks like it did, but new buzz doesn't anymore, so this should really be fixed.

[onecircles]

Full respect to you Unz, I know you're a developer. I use mixIO and I love it. I gladly regard you as a buzz wizard. Thank you for your work in the community.

It's just that what you said didn't conform with what I had learned over the course of my time with buzz, but thank you for checking the dev notes and asking oskari and clearing it up. I'm very glad to know that new buzz doesn't interact with the machines until they are loaded into a 'song'.

I still think it's cool to remove the bundled machines that I don't ever use, and which don't return after being removed from the gear folder. I've outlined a list of machines here that can be removed and which won't return. It seems wise to leave the dlls for machines which will load regardless of their presence in gear, and I've listed those here too. I know they are harmless, I just don't see any reason to have jeskola bass etc. in there when I am never going to use them.

[onecircles]

btw, joachip, is hyperion EQ safe? According to the buzz wiki it's been decided that nearly all equalizers cause problems. I really like hyperion EQ though. Additionally I am a big fan of uranus reverb, but I have suspected it of causing noise bursts in the past. Could you clarify the situation on the stability of your machines? Thank you for your work as well. I'm a big fan of all your machines.

[szaszhareen]

good post, i like the streamlining idea. for a few months i used only the jeskola gens and fx and a few choice vst, chasing this very idea of minimalism after my "gotta catch em all" machine fever wore off. because of that, there's no way i could live without jeskola filter 3 and bass 3. it's good to see here the machines that can be taken out if need be.

i've toyed with the idea of having two buzz installs like you describe. do you just run the installer and point it to two different directories, then have a shortcut for each?

i'd really like to strip down my install to the bare minimum even for creative purposes, many times i find myself scrolling through a huge list of machines even though i only use a dozen or so. it just adds distraction when i'm trying to accomplish something, though it's great for when i'm just messing about.

[onecircles]

do you just run the installer and point it to two different directories, then have a shortcut for each?

Thanks szhaszhareen Yep that's all you do. Buzz is very happy and well behaved with multiple installations, although I have found that I can't keep 2 versions running at different sample rates by default. If you change sample rate settings in one it will carry over to the other. It seems like they share some registry keys.

It's looking like the most streamlined option for machines view is to remove the machines I've listed here (or don't), and then edit index.txt to hide those that remain.

[Joachip]

btw, joachip, is hyperion EQ safe? According to the buzz wiki it's been decided that nearly all equalizers cause problems.

If this is the impression that the wiki gives people, we need to edit it, because they're not all bad. Firesledge ParamEQ, Bigyo EQ, Ld channel eq and Hyperion are all stable.

I really like hyperion EQ though. Additionally I am a big fan of uranus reverb, but I have suspected it of causing noise bursts in the past. Could you clarify the situation on the stability of your machines? Thank you for your work as well. I'm a big fan of all your machines.

Well I use Uranus quite a lot, and I don't get noise bursts. It's safe.

There is however one thing to consider: A faulty machine that outputs just one single sample with a value of e.g. +200 dB would just sound like a short little click. Nothing bad. But add any reverb or delay to it, and the way-too-loud single sample is suddenly repeated over and over again, causing a noise burst that could last for seconds, even minutes. So the output of a bad machine can make it look like as if the next machine in the signal chain is faulty, even though this is not the case.

And come to think of it, I should probably add a hard-limit to the input of all such delay/reverb machines. I mean, under normal circumstances, no signal should be louder than +20 or +30 dB max. Anything above that would be okay to clip - even in the input of an effects machine.

[onecircles]

Wow great news! So glad I get to use two of my favorite plugins.

I suspected something like what you describe here. I had a theory that some machines were hitting the reverb too hard when they made their first notes and creating a big cacophonous sound which would never die down. I tried putting some quiet notes earlier in the song that were inaudible to try to 'initialize' the reverb, but it didn't remove the problem. Looks like in that case it was probably one of the other machines in the bmx.

I have another 'song' though that has just what you're talking about though. It's a big echoey sound-scape and any time I open it I have to wait about a minute for all the noise to work through the reverbs, and then the music will begin to emerge from underneath. Thanks for your reply.

Sounds like your idea for a hard limiter might fix that problem/feature though. I'm all for an update to uranus! Maybe put a toggle switch in the attributes though, just in case some crazies like me are using it for some experimental effects. %D

[onecircles]

AndersBrontosaurus, where is this index.txt you speak of? I haven't found it. Does it contain all the machines that are loaded in the machines view? What is the syntax for modifying it? Thanks!

[AndersBrontosaurus]

index.txt is located in the gearfolder.

It's used when you rightclick mouse on machineview. The original one is quite simple and some people have made better ones like this one that I think is made by thOke.





You can find some indexes in these links. Just replace index.txt in your gearfolder.

http://buzzmachines.com/indexsection.php
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1658

[szaszhareen]

crazy to think that index.txt used to be the only way to select a machine, i really like the "buzz 08" machine list on the right with the tabbed sorting. also being able to hit enter in machine view to search is a great improvement for me. i never much liked mousing through an endless right click tree, no matter how well organized.

now what would be super sick is to see a way to edit the right-side machine list in the same way we can edit index.txt, to hide/show certain machines. having multiple profiles for this would be insane, being able to choose from user defined machine groups would be crazy eddie.

[AndersBrontosaurus]

I guess you could have at least one profile already. the machines for the tab "more machines" is stored in a certain folder. just remove the ones you don't want. they'll be organized alphabetically though...


edit: I guess you'd have to remove all machines and move the ones you like from generators to this folder. If you have copies of machines in various places I assume there can be a problem with your .prs